Members of the Federation of Koraga Associations staged a dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Monday demanding better facilities for the community.
Addressing the protesters, Susheela Nada, vice-president of the Karnataka Boodakattu Sanghagala Okkoota, said the changes in rules for getting foodgrain under the public distribution system had hit the most backward Koraga community hard. The information on PDS was now being given through SMS. But many members of the community did not have mobile phones. It would be better if the government continued with the Antyodaya PDS scheme for the Koraga families and gave Antyodaya PDS cards to them.
Though the State government had passed the Karnataka Scheduled Castes Sub Plan and Tribal Plan (Planning, Allocation and Utilisation of Financial Resources) Act, 2013, members of the community had not been able to take advantage of it because the government was yet to formulate guidelines to implement it.
Distribution of land to the members of the community under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 and Land Reforms Act had come to a standstill.
The government should take steps to provide title deeds to the members of the community.
Ashram Schools run by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare were in a poor shape. The quality of food served to the students was substandard. “The government should issue a White Paper on the status of the Ashram Schools in the State,” she said.
Special gram sabhas should be held at the gram panchayat level to focus on programmes for empowerment of women in the villages. Gowri Kenjur, president of the Udupi taluk unit of the okkoota, said the population of the Koraga community was just 13,000. Though various programmes for the welfare of the community had been launched under the Integrated Tribal Development Project, they were not enough. There should be a constant review of implementation of such programmes, she added.
